Hot Shot

Chapter 3:

For Better or Worse (Mostly Worse)

Fuji exited from the men's restroom. Almost immediately he caught sight of Rei.

She was sitting at a table by herself as she tried to roll her movie ticket between her fingers. She was failing miserably, probably because it's just about impossible to do the trick with something as light as paper, but her determination never diminished. Fuji chuckled at how naïve Rei often came off to be. She was like a four year old child in a seventeen years old body.

Fuji stared at the Rei a few seconds longer, contemplating on whether or not he should go greet her. A nice opening topic would be how ridiculous she looked, at least that was his excuse to talk to her. It was strange. Normally Fuji never needed an excuse to talk to anybody. If he felt like chatting then he would. No, I left my coat or I'm lost or any of that other crap. Fuji contemplated a little while longer. Their last meeting, only a few days ago, ran through his head and he smiled.

Fuji made his way over to Rei, who never noticed his approach. Even as he stood beside her watching.

"Not working for ya, huh?" Fuji finally said.

Rei jumped and pulled back her elbow ready strike, but just before she did so she saw it was Fuji and stopped her punch halfway through.

"Don't do that! I almost punched you!" Rei nearly shouted.

Fuji chuckled once more as he slid into the seat across from Rei.

"So what brings you here?" He asked and he cupped his chin in his left hand.

"Tomoka," Rei muttered dryly as she shoved her ticket in her pocket, "And you?"

"Team outing," Fuji mumbled never breaking his gaze from Rei.

A smug smirk slid on Rei's face.

"Which one of those boys is Ryoma?" Rei asked as she turned to face and pointed at the group of boys, plus Tomoka and Sakuno, in front of the candy bar.

Fuji arched his eyebrows unsure as to why Rei wanted to know which boy was Ryoma, but nonetheless he complied.

"The short one." He answered flatly as he pointed out Ryoma never taking his chin off from his hand.

Rei laughed.

"Haha! Was that the best description you could muster for a friend?"

Fuji shrugged and laced his fingers together before placing them atop the table.

"What movie are you seeing?" he asked half-heartedly, but somewhere inside he hoped she was seeing the same movie as he and the team.

Rei quickly reached into her pocket and retrieved her ticket.

"Apparently I'm seeing Shadows in the Dark. Tomoka only bought a ticket for me so I could get in. She could probably care less if just up and left." Rei said before sliding the ticket back into her pocket.

"I hear it's a pretty decent watch. If you'd like, I'd even sit with you." Fuji said as he put on his trademark smile.

Rei looked at Fuji with a raised eyebrow before she put on a lazy grin.

"As tempting as that sounds you do have an entourage here with you. Are you telling me you'd abandoned them for me?"

Fuji's grin widened as he shrugged.

"Well, I would-" Rei started before she was interrupted.

"HEY BOSS!" A male voice called.

Rei and Fuji, plus a few other movie patrons, turned to look at the source of call. There stood three teenage boys. One had raven-black hair and the other two were both blonde.

The two blondes quickly made their way over while the raven leisurely walked over to join them.

"What a coincidence running into you here, boss!" One of the blondes "greeted."

"Especially since last we heard you were grounded." The other blonde added.

Rei narrowed her eyes and the both blondes grinned even wider. Rei sighed then smiled.

"If you must know, I'm here for my darling little sister, so that she may enjoy the full fledged amenities of her youth."

The boys looked at each other and seemed as if they were going to speak before they were interrupted.

"You two should know better than to antagonize Banchou." The raven said.

The blondes shrugged and smile and then turned their gaze to the previously ignored Fuji.

"Who's the kid?" One asked.

Rei eyes brightened and her smile grew wider at the mention of Fuji and if Fuji had anything to say, and he did, for some reason the gesture pleased him.

"This is Syuusuke!" She happily introduced.

Fuji nodded toward the blondes and the two grinned.

"I'm Landon."

"And I'm Nathan."

"Pleased to meet you!" They greeted in unison.

Fuji then turned his gaze to the raven-haired boy with a sense of déjà-vu.

Then suddenly he remembered. That was the boy who was with Rei when he first met her.

"Kazuki, right?" Fuji calmly stated more than he asked.

The boy narrowed his eyes before muttering a barely audible, 'yeah.'

"What movie are you guys seeing?" Rei asked.

Fuji turned his gaze from Kazuki and back to Rei, feeling…uncertain?

Fuji wondered to himself why really really hoped the boy were seeing anything but Shadows in the Dark.

"I think the correct term would be what is it we saw." Landon said, or maybe it was Nathan, the blondes were obviously twins.

Fuji internally sighed. They were likely leaving, no need to trouble himself over them.

"What'd you see?" Rei asked again.

"Midnight Rush!" Nathan or Landon exclaimed.

"The car chase scene was superb!" Landon, or was it Nathan.

"I heard it was a pretty decent watch. Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but Syuusuke and I have a movie to catch, right?" Rei stated as she stood up from her seat and turned her gaze to Fuji.

"Right." Fuji said as he followed suit.

Landon and Nathan looked at one another before smirking.

"Oh, we see." The two practically purred.

Rei simply shook her head with a smile.

"Later Lanthan. Kazuki." She said with a curt nod before she and Fuji walked over to the snack bar. (Lanthan is a combination of Landon and Nathan in case you were confused)

After buying candy, drinks, and popcorn to split the two made their way to the appropriate theater.

"Let's sit up front." Rei whispered as she ducked under the screen as a preview for some other action movie played.

"Good idea." Fuji said with a nod and a smile.

After the movie, Fuji and Rei were the first out of the theater and were chatting in the lobby (Is that what that area is called?) waiting for their respective group, who came out shortly after.

"Yo, Fuji! Where were you? We never saw you come in." Momo said as he and the gang made their way over.

"I ran into a friend decided to accompany here." He replied.

"Oh. Back down now Fuji. No one should be friends with her." Tomoka stated.

"And why not? I think I'm a pretty decent friend." Rei replied histrionically.

Fuji smiled at Rei's dramatic act. He was almost positive Tomoka had no idea how similar she and her sister were. Both were dramatic and somewhat violent.

"Oh, excuse me. Where are my manners? I'm Takeshi Momoshiro, but you can call me Momo." Momo said in a gentleman-like manner

"I'm Rei Osakada, but you can just me Rei." Rei greeted after a few giggles.

Rei then turned her gaze towards Ryoma, who seemed to be at least a whole six inches shorter than Rei, who was 5'5.

"And you must be Ryoma." Rei said with a somewhat evil smirk.

"Rei!" Tomoka harshly whispered with clenched teeth.

"What? I just wanna know about the boy you've been stalk-"

Suddenly Tomoka threw herself into Rei, both hand firmly placed over the older girl's mouth.

"!" Tomoka quickly spluttered before placing her hand on Rei's back to steer her out of the theater, Sakuno following behind.

"Bye Syuusuke!" Rei happily called as she looked over her shoulder before she was roughly escorted out of the theater by her younger sister.

Fuji waved behind his usual smile, though this time this smile was far more sincere.

"Guess we should get going too, eh." He said as he casually stretched and made his way towards the exit, ignoring all of the curious stares from his teammates.